Feb 04 (Japan Times) - A government panel plans to recommend that children age 2 or older wear face masks at day care facilities as a part of measures to prevent them and staff from becoming infected with the coronavirus, a source familiar with the matter said Friday.
As the rapid spread of the omicron variant in Japan continues, health minister Shigeyuki Goto said in a news conference that the new advice for children should be “pushed forward.”
The health ministry’s anti-virus guidelines for day care so far do not require children to wear face masks at the facilities, but the panel’s plan will call for those aged 2 or over to “wear face masks when possible,” according to the source.
The draft also allow for exceptions, saying, “There is no need to force them to wear face masks when they are feeling ill or have difficulties wearing them continuously.”
The panel will maintain the existing principle of not recommending children under 2 to wear them, due to the risks of suffocation or heatstroke.
As the highly transmissible variant is spreading among children, the committee on the country’s COVID-19 response plans to also introduce the new policy to afterschool facilities for elementary school students, the source said.
Source: ANNnewsCH
